2023 Ultimate College Football Road Trip: 50 Games & 43,000 Miles

BetMGM College Football Road Trip

Week 0 is the start of college football betting at the online sportsbook.ย 

Itโ€™s also the start of a 50-game voyage to see 73 different teams play in 45 different cities across 26 different states.ย 

BetMGMโ€™s 2023 Ultimate College Football Road Trip begins in Los Angeles on Saturday, Aug. 26, and ends in Foxborough, Mass., on Saturday, Dec. 9. In between: 42,681 miles and approximately 645 driving hours.

No planes, trains, or boats. Driving only.

Week 0

DateGameMiles
Aug. 26San Jose State at USC-

Navy-Notre Dame (in Dublin) is the biggest of seven Week 0 games, but without a plane or boat, that game is ineligible for the road trip.

Instead, the trip begins where Caleb Williamsโ€™ 2022 Heisman campaign began: vs. San Jose State at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Williams sits atop Heisman odds as he attempts to become the second player in college football history to win the award twice (Archie Griffin, 1974-75).

USC is a 30.5-point favorite over the Spartans.

Week 1

DateGameMiles
Thursday, Aug. 31Florida at Utah694
Friday, Sept. 1Missouri State at Kansas1,071
Saturday, Sept. 2West Virginia at Penn State1,022
Sunday, Sept. 3LSU vs. Florida State (Orlando)1,055
Monday, Sept. 4Clemson at Duke624

Floridaโ€™s visit to Utah โ€” in the first of three appearances for the Utes on this trip, tied with Ohio State for the most among all teams โ€” will be the Gatorsโ€™ first regular-season game outside the Eastern and Central time zones for the first time in 40 years.ย 

After a layover game in Lawrence on Friday night, Neal Brown will have an early opportunity to remove himself from the college football hot seat with West Virginiaโ€™s first game against Penn State since 1992.

Labor Day weekend ends with the biggest Week 1 game on the college football schedule and Clemsonโ€™s first visit to Duke since 2012.

Week 2

DateGameMiles
Thursday, Sept. 7Murray State at Louisville541
Friday, Sept. 8Illinois at Kansas551
Saturday, Sept. 9Texas at Alabama716

Alabama and Texas will meet three times in the regular season from 2022-25 after zero regular-season games from 1923-2021. And this yearโ€™s game should be a College GameDay location for the second straight year.

Alabama is one of five teams with two home games on the trip. No team has three home games.

Week 3

DateGameMiles
Thursday, Sept. 15Navy at Memphis221
Friday, Sept. 15Army at UTSA742
Saturday, Sept. 16South Carolina at Georgia1,058

The Week 3 headliner is South Carolina-Georgia โ€” the only home game of the trip for the favorite in college football national championship odds โ€” but Army-UTSA is a Group of Five beauty.ย 

Only three teams have more wins than the Roadrunners (23) over the last two seasons: Georgia (29), Michigan (25), and Alabama (24). Another season with double-digit wins will only increase the Power Five offers for head coach Jeff Traylor.

Week 4

DateGameMiles
Thursday, Sept. 21Georgia State at Coastal Carolina303
Friday, Sept. 22Wisconsin at Purdue825
Saturday, Sept. 23Ohio State at Notre Dame112

After Fun Belt action on Thursday and Wisconsin-Purdue on Friday nightย  โ€” which is the last visit to a Big Ten city until Week 9 โ€” itโ€™s a short drive to South Bend for Ohio Stateโ€™s third-ever visit to Notre Dame and first since 1996.

Week 5

DateGameMiles
Friday, Sept. 29Utah at Oregon State2,283
Saturday, Sept. 30Oregon at Stanford607

Oregon-Stanford isnโ€™t among the premier Saturday games, but options are limited after watching one of the premier games of the entire season, Utah-Oregon State, on Friday night.

The Beavers are chasing back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in program history. They also posted the second-best ATS record in college football last year.

Week 6

DateGameMiles
Wednesday, Oct. 4Jacksonville State at Middle Tennessee2,309
Thursday, Oct. 5Western Kentucky at Louisiana Tech582
Friday, Oct. 6Kansas State at Oklahoma State466
Saturday, Oct. 7Oklahoma vs. Texas (Dallas)271

The first of four straight weeks with four games, Week 6 begins with a 2,300-mile drive for a can-miss game in Murfreesboro and ends with two games that should impact the Big 12 title picture.

Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas State occupy the top three spots in Big 12 Championship odds.

Week 7

DateGameMiles
Tuesday, Oct. 10Coastal Carolina at App State1,001
Wednesday, Oct. 11UTEP at FIU829
Thursday, Oct. 12West Virginia at Houston1,198
Saturday, Oct. 14Oregon at Washington2,310

Skipping one of three Friday games โ€” Tulane-Memphis, Fresno State-Utah State, or Stanford-Colorado โ€” is a small price for securing another canโ€™t-miss Pac-12 game, Oregon at Washington.

The second-longest drive of the trip must begin immediately after the Dana Holgorsen Bowl on Thursday night to reach Seattle by a TBD kickoff on Saturday.

Skipping the non-descript game in Houston to reach Seattle earlier is also an option.

Week 8

DateGameMiles
Tuesday, Oct. 17Southern Miss at South Alabama2,697
Wednesday, Oct. 18FIU at Sam Houston494
Thursday, Oct. 19James Madison at Marshall1,071
Saturday, Oct. 21Utah at USC2,286

Thereโ€™s no reason to go back to Miami for Jacksonville State-FIU or Huntsville for UTEP-Sam Houston, therefore itโ€™s straight to Blacksburg after a likely high-scoring game in Kentucky.

After a quick detour to Charlotte to check on Tom Hermanโ€™s FAU rebuild, itโ€™s the first and only trip to Madison for the first huge game of the Luke Fickell era. Fickellโ€™s alma mater is visiting Wisconsin for the first time since 2016.

Week 9

DateGameMiles
Tuesday, Oct. 24Liberty at Western Kentucky2,081
Thursday, Oct. 26Syracuse at Virginia Tech441
Friday, Oct. 27FAU at Charlotte173
Saturday, Oct. 28Ohio State at Wisconsin902

Thereโ€™s no reason to go back to Miami on Wednesday for Jacksonville State-FIU or Huntsville for UTEP-Sam Houston, therefore itโ€™s straight to Blacksburg after a likely high-scoring game in Kentucky.

After a quick detour to Charlotte to check on Tom Hermanโ€™s FAU rebuild, itโ€™s the first and only trip to Madison for the first huge game of the Luke Fickell era. Fickellโ€™s alma mater is visiting Wisconsin for the first time since 2016.

Week 10

DateGameMiles
Tuesday, Oct. 31Buffalo at Toledo385
Thursday, Nov. 2TCU at Texas Tech1,311
Saturday, Nov. 4LSU at Alabama939

Halloween MACtion is followed by a 20-hour drive to Lubbock for a game that could effectively eliminate one team from Big 12 contention and a 14-hour drive to Tuscaloosa for the first SEC game since Week 3.

This could be a five-game week if youโ€™re willing to pick a different Thursday game and, depending on TBD kickoff times, Saturday game.

Week 11

DateGameMiles
Tuesday, Nov. 7Ball State at Northern Illinois1,124
Wednesday, Nov. 8Akron at Miami (OH)342
Thursday, Nov. 9Virginia at Louisville141
Saturday, Nov. 11Michigan at Penn State529

North Texas-SMU and Wyoming-UNLV arenโ€™t enticing enough on Friday night to pass on Michigan-Penn State and secure a five-game week.

The Wolverines โ€” tied with Ohio State atop Big Ten Championship odds โ€” are looking for a third straight win over the Nittany Lions after losing three of the previous four games in the series.

Week 12

DateGameMiles
Tuesday, Nov. 14Toledo at Bowling Green338
Wednesday, Nov. 15Central Michigan at Ohio197
Thursday, Nov. 16Boston College at Pittsburgh204
Saturday, Nov. 18Georgia at Tennessee494

Instead of following up MACtion with a pedestrian ACC game and a trip to Knoxville, the alternative route includes another potential Pac-12 blockbuster (Washington at Oregon State) preceded by Colorado-Washington State in Pullman.

Week 13

DateGameMiles
Tuesday, Nov. 21Eastern Michigan at Buffalo693
Thursday, Nov. 23Ole Miss at Mississippi State994
Friday, Nov. 24TCU at Oklahoma650
Saturday, Nov. 25Ohio State at Michigan1,027

The final week of the regular season starts with Tuesday MACtion and ends with another potentially mega Ohio State-Michigan game. Only Georgia has a higher college football win total than Michigan (10.5) and Ohio State (10.5).

In between thereโ€™s also the Egg Bowl and Oklahomaโ€™s final regular-season game as a Big 12 team.

Week 14

DateGameMiles
Saturday, Dec. 2SEC Championship709

As of now, the SEC Championship is the most likely conference championship to feature two potential playoff contenders.ย 

Georgia is favored in SEC Championship odds, followed by Alabama and LSU.

Week 15

DateGameMiles
Dec. 9Army vs. Navy (Foxborough1,068

This will be the first Army-Navy Game played in Massachusetts. And itโ€™ll mark the first time since 1942-45 the game has been played in four different locations over a four-year period.

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